Pakistan strikes back at insurgents

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — The Pakistani military, which the Bush administration has criticized for not pushing hard enough against Taliban extremists in the tribal areas, has used jet fighters and helicopter gunships in the past three weeks to strike at insurgents pouring over the border to attack U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

More than 400 Taliban fighters were killed in the air assaults in Bajur, the tribal region where al-Qaida and the Taliban have forged close ties, and rebels were forced out of villages they once controlled.

But the cease-fire the Pakistani government declared Saturday night for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins Wednesday, prompted concerns that whatever gains that were made in the region would be squandered.

Khalid Aziz, a former chief secretary of the North-West Frontier Province, said the Taliban would use the opportunity to regroup.

It was unclear whether the cease-fire would extend beyond Ramadan, politicians from the tribal areas said.

The last three weeks of airstrikes, in addition to a monthlong air and ground offensive in nearby Swat, in the North-West Frontier Province, signified the most sustained campaign by the Pakistani military after months of intense pressure by the Bush administration to do more against the insurgents.

The Bush administration has said the ability of al-Qaida and Taliban to operate there and in other areas of the tribal belt gives them license to plot attacks against the United States.

The rebels, operating with impunity from havens like Bajur, a 250-square-mile pocket of mountains and narrow valleys on the northern edge of the tribal areas, have struck U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan with mounting ferocity.

As a result of the air campaign, more than 200,000 civilians have fled, according to the World Health Organization and UNICEF. More than 40,000 people from Bajur are now refugees in Afghanistan.

The Pakistani military has met fierce resistance from the rebels in Bajur. Col. Shahbaz Rasul of the Frontier Corps, the paramilitary force that is leading the army operations there, said more than 400 Taliban had been killed by airstrikes, though an official with access to Inter-Services Intelligence data said an estimated 200 Taliban had been killed.

It was difficult to verify the number of casualties independently.

Rasul said the Taliban fighters — 2,300 men under four commanders — were better-paid than his soldiers and well-motivated.

But the airstrikes were criticized for being indiscriminate. The assault had not killed any known leaders of the Taliban in Bajur, said Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, a former interior minister, whose constituency is close to the area.

The displaced civilians blamed the government for the hardships in the camps and for the destruction of their homes.

Another legislator, Muneer Orekzai, said: "It's not justice to kill five Taliban and 95 civilians.

"Everyone knows who the militants are in every village. We want a targeted operation, with the army going on search-and-destroy operations."